Here, we will share the checklist to improve your website's LCP score. It will provide practical solutions to improve the LCP score of every website. Implementing these strategies will enable you to pass the core web vitals test and improve your rankings
What Is The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)?
Largest Contentful Paint is one of three essential metrics for Core web vitals. It evaluates the loading performance of a webpage. Specifically, the LCP measures the time the largest contentful paint element, like an image or text block, takes to load on a website fully. It is a very important metric because it tells when the main content on the page becomes viewable to the users. Following are the criteria set by Google to determine whether you have a good or poor LCP
- A score below 2.5 s is considered Good
- A score between 2.5 - 4.0 s means it needs Improvement
- A score above 4.0 s is considered Poor
Why Is LCP Important?
A good LCP score is essential because it directly affects user experience and the website's rankings. Here’s why it matters:
Better User Experience: Users expect a fast and responsive site. A good LCP score makes your website functional and efficient, which improves the user’s overall experience. It reduces the bounce rates and improves engagement.
SEO Benefits: Google prioritizes fast-loading sites in its search results. Sites with a lower LCP are rewarded with higher rankings, which increases their visibility to new users.
Higher Conversion Rates: Faster load times contribute to higher conversion rates. Users are more likely to stay on a page and explore it if it loads quickly. Studies show that improving load time can directly impact sales and engagement.
You can use reshepe to track and improve core web vitals health.
The LCP Improvement Checklist
To improve your LCP score, you must reduce load times for the most critical page elements. Here’s a comprehensive checklist to help you fix the largest contentful paint:
Improve Time to First Byte (TTFB)
Time to the first byte (TTFB) is crucial for a good LCP score. It determines how long the browser takes to get the first byte from the server. The quicker your server serves your content, the quicker users can begin to browse through the content. Here is how you can improve it
- Upgrade Your Hosting: Choosing a high-performance hosting provider is crucial. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is recommended for sites with global audiences. CDNs use multiple servers worldwide to serve content closer to users. The load time reduces if the user is near the server.
- Implement Caching: Caching allows your site to store frequently requested files locally, reducing the load on the server for returning visitors. Browser caching, in particular, speeds up the experience for users visiting multiple pages.
- Reduce Redirects and Optimize DNS Lookups: Each redirect adds an extra step to the loading process. Try to reduce redirects and DNS lookups to avoid unnecessary delays. It will improve your TTFB and, eventually, the largest contentful paint as well.
Optimize Critical Rendering Path
The Critical Rendering Path refers to the browser's steps to load and display content on the page. Optimizing it minimizes render-blocking resources. It helps improve the speed at which the main content appears.
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Minifying files means removing unnecessary characters, spaces, and comments. It makes your page lighter, which helps it load faster.
- Inline Critical CSS in the <head> Section: Critical CSS refers to the essential styling needed for the initial content. Inlining prevents render-blocking delays and helps your site to load faster.
- Defer Non-Critical JavaScript: Use the async or defer attributes for JavaScript files that don’t impact above-the-fold content. This ensures they load after the main content is rendered.
Reduce JavaScript Execution and Main Thread Blocking Time
JavaScript is essential, but too much can delay page rendering by blocking the main thread and increase the largest contentful paint. Optimizing JavaScript can prevent these delays. Here is how you can optimize it
- Audit and Remove Unused JavaScript: Review your JavaScript files and remove redundant code. It will lighten the page load and improve the LCP score. You can audit it using a core web vitals optimization tool like reshepe
- Break Up Long Tasks into Smaller Ones: Long tasks can cause delays, so break them into smaller chunks. This way, browsers can continue loading other content while JavaScript runs in the background.
- Consider Using Web Workers: Offload complex calculations to Web Workers. It enables JavaScript to run in the background without blocking the main thread.
Optimize Images and Videos
Images and videos are the largest files on the web page. Optimizing them is essential because these directly affect your LCP score. Here is how you can do it
- Use Next-Gen Image Formats (WebP or AVIF): These formats offer better compression than JPEG or PNG. Using these file sizes allows you to reduce file size without losing quality.
- et Defined Width and Height Attributes: Specifying width and height for images prevents layout shifts as they load. It helps improve both the largest contentful paint and user experience.
- Implement Lazy Loading for Non-Essential Images: Lazy loading reduces the loading of images outside the viewport. It quickly shows the content on the user’s screen and loads the rest.
Implement Code Splitting And Progressive Loading
Code splitting and progressive loading reduce the size of the initial load by delivering only the necessary resources upfront, improving initial load times.
- Split JavaScript by Page or Component: Divide JavaScript code into smaller bundles. This approach allows pages to load only the JavaScript they need rather than all code simultaneously.
- Lazy Load Non-Critical Content: Load only essential, above-the-fold content first. Progressive loading gives users a faster interactive experience while non-essential elements load in the background.
Optimize Web Fonts
Custom fonts can slow load times, so avoid them first. But if you want to use them, then optimize them.
- Self-Host Fonts for Faster Access: Hosting fonts locally reduces reliance on third-party servers, which can add delays.
- Set font-display: swap: This CSS property displays a fallback font while the custom font loads. It ensures the text is visible without delay.
- Subset Fonts for Above-the-Fold Content: Serve only the glyphs needed for the initial page view, which reduces file size.
Implement Preloading And Prerendering
Preloading and prerendering tell the browser to load high-priority resources early. It ensures they’re available when needed. Here is how to implement them
- Preload Key Resources: Use <link rel="preload"> to preload the largest contentful paint image and other assets like fonts. Preloading ensures these assets are loaded immediately.
- Prerender Predictable Navigation Paths: Prerendering helps by preloading the entire page for frequently visited pages. It improves the experience of frequently visiting users.
Hopefully, now you know how to improve the largest contentful paint of your website. Start implementing these strategies today for the best user experience.
Need Help In Improving Your Largest Contentful Paint Score?
Improving your website’s LCP can seem challenging, but with the right tools, it is very easy. reshepe offers an all-in-one solution for monitoring and optimizing website performance. It provides a detailed overview and a clear view of your Core Web Vitals.
It identifies the issues and tells you the practical solutions to solve those problems. So sign up reshepe now for a fast, responsive website and higher rankings.